Changing with the Seasons | Insights to Living with Ease

I hope that everyone is enjoying the slightly warmer temperatures and the extra sunny day each week (hehe).

I love spring for so many reasons, but in the last few years I have found myself in a sigh of relief when spring is truly here. That the countless gloomy days and swinging cold temperatures are put to an end and a sense of freedom comes with the lifting of winter.

Seeing all the wild life come back to life and flowers, yes, the flowers come back into bloom is so captivating.

Spring for me is a time of rebirth, a time to see things again with fresh eyes, to remind myself of what is important, and to take time to match that up with my goals and dreams.

Spring offers a sense of energy and a sense of renewal. Spring for me is a reminder of new life and my own, as 33 years ago, this April my loving parents brought me into this world.

I have come a long way in 32 years, 33 springs, 128 season changes, and despite my own challenging season changes and unexpected storms, I have made it through them all.

The last several winters to spring season changes have stopped me dead in my tracks (literally), and left me weeping with tears of joy that yet again, new life is transforming.

That every year, the same birds come back, that the squirrel who crunches black walnuts all over my yard made it through the winter, that my chickens survived, that the deer, turkey’s, and my family of five can in-fact coexists together when we simply respect each other’s needs and lifestyle.

That in a season of change, so much stays the same. I believe that there is a lesson to be learned in this transition, that even with all the technology, advancements, and fancy devices, the best lessons we can learn have nothing to do with that stuff and everything to do with my backyard friend the grey squirrel and our coexisting neighbors the deer and turkey.

I learn so much from nature, watching how the animals adapt with change, how they tune in rather than tune out when things don’t go their way? I often wonder to myself what their goals and dreams are, why do certain animals do what they do? What do they know that we may have forgotten? What do they see that I need to?

It reminds me to step back and listen, to step back and check in and make sure the path I’m on is the one I should be on, that the way I’m walking is best in line with my gifts and talents. That how I am choosing to spend my time on this earth is enriching the lives of those around me, inspiring them, and that this cycle first starts with me and how I view this life.

Because here’s the thing-things change. Seasons change, life changes. The animals we coexist with understand this fully, they adapt, they tune in, they figure it out. We humans could benefit from the same.

Living in Wisconsin has brought about an unexpected gratitude for warm weather, for all four seasons, for the notion that nothing lasts forever.

Just last month I sat next to a woman on a flight home who lives in California and was telling me how when the temperature drops below 70, it’s unacceptable to her, and she’s cold. That when her son calls from college here in Wisconsin, and he comments how lovely a day it is when it’s sunny and 35 degrees in January, I am grateful for being exposed to change. See, her son has adapted, her son has drawn a new appreciation for the necessary changes, for the sweetness of a 35-degree day laced into dozens of others barely reaching 20. He embraced the change, and she even commented on how she admired his willingness to endure such changes.

Why do we hold on, why do we fear that when something is changing good won’t come of it? That nature has a cycle, and in the trillions of seasons the earth has made it through that each cycle, each year, change must continue. And like the animals, we must learn to adapt and tune back into nature, tune back into what is truly important. Tune back into the messages we cannot get via text or Facebook.

So as spring continues to come into bloom, don’t fight it, let go of trying to figure it out, because all that time you spend trying to master something no one has yet to do, you could be spending that time mastering the art of simply tuning in, listening like the deer do, living in harmony like the birds do and seeing the gifts, blessings and real beauty the ever-changing earth has to offer us.

Because if you want to change anything in life, being in it, close to it, and surrounded with it, you then realize that the change first starts with you. How you live, how you eat, how you breathe, how you interact with that and those around you.

The trees don’t complain when the previous winter was a rough one, the turkeys don’t spend their days grumbling on Facebook when their neighbors the deer ate all their food. No, they restrategize and move on, they work to figure out where they went wrong, realize where they need to improve so it doesn’t happen again. They put effort in so they can continue to thrive.

Yoga has brought me great insights to life, to my life, and what it truly means. Yoga, like nature, is about us ever evolving and learning how to adapt to changes with grace and ease. Be it a new teacher, a change up in the classroom set up, or attending a class style we are not accustom to.

To fight winter each year will only cause more pain, misery, and unhappiness. Learning to see the beauty in the one 32 degree day among many other chilly and dreary ones is the first step to seeing the good laced in with the challenging.

Here’s to adapting and changing with the seasons.